Diablo 4's Season 3 developer update reignites "controversial topic" of how to pronounce WASD
Keyboard controls will also provide "even more precise control" to avoid Season 3's new traps
Earlier this week, Blizzard announced what's coming up in Season 3 of Diablo 4, and underneath the mountain's worth of lore and loot updates, there was the surprisingly good news that WASD key controls were finally being added to help provide even more accurate and precise movement in the game over the series' traditional mouse clicks. Not that any of them could decide how to actually pronounce WASD when it came to talking about them on last night's Developer Update stream, though, as there were competing cries of "was-dee", "wased" and "double-you-ey-es-dee" all over the shop as they debated this clearly very "controversial topic" live on air. Read on for more details about what they're hoping to achieve with WASD controls in the game, but more importantly: how do you pronounce WASD? Let's get a poll up asap.
"WASD controls are coming to Diablo 4. This is actually something we talked about way back at the launch of the game," community lead Adam Fletcher said. "We've heard a lot of players asking specifically for additional control options for them," he continued, and the hope is that it will make the game more accessible. The keyboard controls will also be customisable, the devs confirmed, so
"We're also really lucky it came online just as we were putting all those hazards in the dungeon," lead season designer Daniel Tanguay added, so fingers crossed these traps will be just a touch easier to navigate once Season 3 pitches up on January 23rd.
There was plenty more besides how to pronounce/mispronounce WASD discussed during the Developer Update stream, as the full thing lasted around two hours total. It included a look at the new seasonal companion, the Seneschal Construct, the new dungeon types you'll be encountering, as well as Arcane Tremors, a new seasonal overworld activity that will start cropping up and causing trouble around the entrances to Vaults.
There were also several sections dedicated to discussing ongoing balance changes, most of which can probably (still) be boiled down to: "We want you to have fun first and foremost, but also we're still working on how to balance that with players wanting the meta to refresh so the same things aren't always going to be good forever."
Will this problem ever be solved, I wonder? Possibly not, given how fickle live service games can be, but you never know. Here's hoping it's an easier thing to solve than 'how do you actually pronounce WASD?' For the love of all that is holy, someone please end this torment once and for all.